.... since I last played Pendragon.

I see a new edtion came out with future edition on the way.

Considering an all Viking campaign using my 1993 copy of 4rth edition Pendragon.

Last night downloaded a pdf copy of Land of Giants. That supplement just oozes piles of wickedness ! Very nicely done.

I wanted to find out how the game has evolved.

What has changed in the upcoming new 5.1 edition?

How well does the 'Book of Battles' and the 'Book of Armies' lend themselves towards large scale tabletop miniatures war-gaming ?

When will all this stuff be available again and what is the website address to order it from ?

Starting to collect 28mm Viking miniatures from Foundry, Gripping Beast, Wargames Factory, Artizan Designs, Crusader Miniatures, and Old Glory.

What has changed in the upcoming new 5.1 edition?

How well does the 'Book of Battles' and the 'Book of Armies' lend themselves towards large scale tabletop miniatures war-gaming ?


While I can't speak for the upcomming 5.1 ed., the changes from 4th to 5th are more a matter of focus and organisation. The book is based on the assumption that you'll start your campaign while Uther is king, and the focus is on playing knights only. There are no longer rules for pc magicians or tribal warriors. So for a viking campaign 4th edition is in many ways a better choice. And Book of Battles and Book of Armies doesn't contain much that is of use for miniature-gaming. There is some fluff in the Book of Battle on medieval armies that might be interesting, but thats about it. The rules will be of minimal use.

As for Land of Giants, I feel an urge to rant a bit; I'm a scandinav (from the FOREST OF THUNDER!! *dramatic music*) and I really don't like the book. Not one bit. In fact every time I pick it up, it makes me angry becuse I really want to like it. Like you I really want to run a northman campaign one day. But I would much rather base my viking campaign on the excellent book Saxons! I'd keep the political maps from Land of Giants, some of the backgrounds and perhaps the scenarios. For everything else I would look to Saxons! Heck, Land of Giants already uses saxon gods, so you might as well use the superior rules found in Saxons (and this is btw some of the things that makes me angry: how on earth do you manage to write a book on northmen and fail to include the gods that makes norse mythology distinct from continental germanic religion. Like Frøy and Njord.)

Anyway. End of rant. Good luck with your campaign. Let us know how it works out.

Thanks for your reply Arkat.

I will order a copy of Saxons tonight.

I played the knightly campaign several ago.

Fell in love with Pendragon since it was not so heavily steeped in magic yet delved into bits of paganism and ancient history.

Eventually I sold off all my other RPG books. Found my 'Holy Grail' I suppose.

Pendragon was also the sole catalyst which set me on the path of tabletop miniature war-gaming. My players wanted a visual battlefield experience which allowed them each to take command of individual units upon the field thus having a direct influence upon events as they unfolded.

For now I have settled in to using 'Warhammer Ancient Battles' for the tabletop miniatures aspect since it's based on the popular and universally known 'Games Workshop' miniatures system with out all the magic.

Having spent a number of years tracing my parents ancestry I am now reading more about the Norman (mother's side) and Rus (father's side) lineages which dominate my family tree.

I want to say 'thank you' to everyone who produced Pendragon 4rth Edition and let you know how much of an enjoyable influence it has made upon my life.

Eventually I sold off all my other RPG books. Found my 'Holy Grail' I suppose.

Pretty much what happend to me too :D except that I still own the Ars Magica 5th edition rulebook and its supplement Covenants. To good to get rid of those.

I too liked the Land of Giants supplement. Another supplement which might be worth tracking down for a Viking campaign might be the old Runequest 3 Vikings boxed set, if you can get a 2nd hand copy for a reasonable price (hopefully cheaper than the £100 one on ebay at the moment). It was written by Greg, Sandy Petersen and Ken Rolston around the time the KAP V 1 came out.

Wish I could answer your main question, but I too am new to 5th edition.

@Gorgon. re Ars Magica. I still have the 4th edition rulebook, but no supplements. The Dark Europe setting and Covenant infrastructure was very conducive to gaming.

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@Gorgon. re Ars Magica. I still have the 4th edition rulebook, but no supplements. The Dark Europe setting and Covenant infrastructure was very conducive to gaming.


Yep. It used to be my favourite RPG ever until I discovered Pendragon. If you're interested get the 5th edition and the updated Covenants book for the 5th edition. Plus, much of the holes and imbalances in the 4th edition were fixed. Excelent stuff, highly recomended.

Sorry for the out-of-topic post, dear sirs.